Desertion

When you read about the number of desertions vs. the number of those actually executed for such it's really a very small percentage who suffered the firing squad (or even branding) - or so it seems to me.


There were two executions here during the war, both for desertion. The first was in January 1863, of a man named Thomas "Nicaragua" Smith. Smith was a classic ne'er-do-well, petty crook in civilian life, who the authorities could never seem to convict. Eventually, a couple of years before the war, a citizens' delegation took him into custody and forcibly put him on a steamer bound for New Orleans, with instructions not to return. He did eventually come back, though, was taken into custody, and enlisted in a Confederate regiment here. A while later he stole a boat and went out to the Union blockade fleet. He subsequently enlisted in the Union army -- quite the opportunist, Smith was -- and arrived back at Galveston on a Federal vessel in January 1863, unaware that Galveston had been recaptured just days before by the Confederates. Smith had the misfortune to be aboard a ship's boat crew that went aboard the pilot boat, and was recognized immediately. Smith was court-martialed, condemned and shot in short order, but there's no question that, had it not been for his long and sordid career here before the war, he might not have been sent to face the firing squad. Not too many people mourned Nicaragua Smith.

A very different case was a young man maned Anton Richers (sometimes given as Richter) who, in December 1864, stole a rowboat and tried to escape to the Union fleet. He capsized the boat on some harbor obstructions, and his cries for help were heard by some other Confederate soldiers nearby. Richers harmed himself further when he tried to bribe the soldiers who had rescued him not to tell. They did anyway, and he was subsequently tried, convicted and ordered to be shot. Desertion was becoming a very serious problem by the winter of 1864-65, and presumably he was to be made an example of. The day before his scheduled execution on March 3, 1865, a local clergyman traveled to Houston to plead for clemency from the District Commander, Major General Walker. Walker agreed, but the telegraph lines were down and the order to halt the execution could not be sent. The lines were not repaired and the message transmitted until 15 minutes after Richers had been shot dead. If the intent of the execution was, as they say, pour encourager les autres, its actual effect was very bad indeed for morale, as a popular young man had been killed who should not have died.
 
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The term used to describe those men who would sign up for bountys to enlist, not substitute, was 'bounty jumpers.' These men made a living out of enlisting at one location, collecting the bounty offered by both State and other agencies and then 'jump' to another different location and do the whole thing over again.

Unionblue

Cross-link to a post I put up a while back entitled "Bounty Jumper Recruitment Image".

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/bounty-jumper-recruitment-image.111045/#post-1077253
 
Does anyone know of a singular study that looked at desertion and the number who left for the various reasons?
That would be tough to do on the Confederate side because they burned a lot of their records just before Richmond fell. Their are a few books about desertion during the CW Amazon or Abebooks should have at least a few titles. Their was a book on CSA desertion written in 1928 or thereabouts. Tomorrow I can quote a few sources about desertion. Yes it happened to both sides but the CSA had a smaller population so it hurt it more plus CSA deserters often fought against the CSA. Got to work tomorrow will post then.
Leftyhunter
 
Not an altogether bad source. On the other hand it does not tell us how many CSA soldiers where estimated to have deserted. Has we have debated before with the above source how does one define "less extensive". We need to know a rough round number of deserters in the CSA and divide that as a percentage vs the Union percentage to compare apples to apples.
Leftyhunter
 
Not an altogether bad source. On the other hand it does not tell us how many CSA soldiers where estimated to have deserted. Has we have debated before with the above source how does one define "less extensive". We need to know a rough round number of deserters in the CSA and divide that as a percentage vs the Union percentage to compare apples to apples.
Leftyhunter

I don’t think you would be having the definition problem had historians Randal and Donald said that desertion was less extensive in the Union army.
 
I don’t think you would be having the definition problem had historians Randal and Donald said that desertion was less extensive in the Union army.
That is a false statement. Its simply a matter of comparing apples to apples. All we need to know is how many soldiers deserted from each army and what is the resulting percent. It is a simple question.
Leftyhunter
 
That is a false statement. Its simply a matter of comparing apples to apples. All we need to know is how many soldiers deserted from each army and what is the resulting percent. It is a simple question.
Leftyhunter

Imagine J.G. Randall and David Donald wasting all that time with more recognized historiographical investigative methodology when all along the answer was as simple as comparing apples to apples.
 
The number of troops that were AWOL or deserted their units is not going to be known especially since Confederate records were destroyed or incomplete. From the website, "http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/military_executions_during_the_civil_war" states that around 500 men from both sides were executed either by hanging or by firing squad.

Another website, "http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23934" does state that branding happened, but numbers are not present. The author states that 147 Union soldiers were executed for crimes during the war.
 
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